Paul Kerswill
Professor

Profile

Biography

Paul Kerswill works in sociolinguistics, specifically language variation and change. He was appointed Professor in January 2012, after appointments at Reading and Lancaster.

Career

University of Cambridge (Gonville and Caius College)BA in Modern Languages (1978, MA 1982)MPhil in Linguistics (1980)PhD in Linguistics (1985)

University of DurhamResearch Assistant (1983)

University of CambridgeResearch Assistant (1985-6)

University of ReadingLecturer/Senior Lecturer (1986-2004)

University of LancasterProfessor (2004-11)

Research

Overview

My research is in language variation and change, with an emphasis on phonetic but also grammatical and discourse variation.

My research is largely focused on dialect contact – the long-term
linguistic consequences that ensue when speakers of different accents or
dialects come together through migration and mobility. My doctoral
research looked at the ways in which Norwegian rural dialect speakers
changed their vernacular speech after they had migrated to the city of
Bergen.

A consequence of dialect contact is dialect levelling – the overall
reduction in linguistic diversity across a dialect area. I worked on a
speech community in which there has been 'extreme' levelling - the New
Town of Milton Keynes. With colleagues at Queen Mary, University of
London, I have also worked extensively on Multicultural London English, a
new 'contact variety' which has emerged in London's East End and
elsewhere in the capital. This has led to my growing interest in new
youth language varieties, particularly in Northern Europe, where I
maintain contacts with scholars in several countries.

October 2007: Hamburg University, Research Centre on Multilingualism: Colloquium on convergence and divergence in language contact situations: 'Dialect levelling and dialect divergence in south-east England: the role of minority ethnic Englishes in phonetic innovation in London'

July 2007: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok: 4 lectures on 'New Directions in British Social Dialectology' and 3 days' consultancy on social dialectology

August 2005: Invited discussant at meeting to prepare case for Centre of Excellence in Society and Language, University of Bergen, Norway

June 2009. Edinburgh University: Edinburgh Sociolinguistics Summer School. Workshop on 'Studying phonetic/phonological change in its social context' and plenary lecture 'Levelling and innovation in Britain: contact and isolation'

September 2008. Bergen University: Two lectures (in Norwegian) on 'Processes of change in British English dialects'